


Eyes in the Storm

by CyberSearcher



Series: Cryptid AU [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blizzard!AU, Cryptid!AU, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, M/M, blame discord, cause apparently I cant not write them gay, glaciershipping - Freeform, implied - Freeform, zangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:40:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyberSearcher/pseuds/CyberSearcher
Summary: Bury me as it pleases you, loverAt sea, or deep within the catacombBut these bones never rested while livingSo how can they stand to languish in repose?The Oh Hellos - Where is Your Rider?Wu finds the descendants of Earth, Lightning and Fire. However, he finds no trace of the elderly Master of Ice nor any news of children.Years pass. The Birchwood grows cold, colder still. He sends the ninja to investigate.
Relationships: Cole/Zane (Ninjago), Nya/Jay Walker
Series: Cryptid AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752718
Comments: 7
Kudos: 119





	Eyes in the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> I Blame The Discord.
> 
> Somehow I wrote this from 12 to 3 and it’s... pretty ok. Most of this was transcribed from the original text, with some edits and additional text. 
> 
> Now I say, enjoy good reader, should you choose to continue.

Nobody lives there, that cursed forest. Anyone who has moved away decades ago. Ever since the Blizzard began. It surrounds the whole landscape, coating everything in snow and sleet.

So they investigate. 

Local myth and rumour speak of a creature responsible for the havoc of the forest. It goes by multiple names; Willows Eyes, The Lurking One, Spirit of Winter. All anyone knows is that it never leaves the forest.

“Ooh, the great and all mighty spirit of snowflakes is coming for you.” Jay blows a puff of snow into the back of Kai’s head. 

“Would you take this seriously, oh blabbering mouth of lightning.” He snaps. “It’s probably just some bear anyways.”

“Enough.” Cole sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If we’re all so brimming with confidence, let’s just get this over with.”

So they elect to ignore the rumours, and delve. 

Their first mistake was getting lost.

Cole loses sight of Jay first. Then a furious wind sends him tumbling down a hillside he didn’t even see through the snow. Cole calls out for Kai but hears nothing but the howling wind. 

“Jay! Where are you!” He calls.

Wandering deeper, the temperature grows colder. He lights a fire and camps under a fallen log. But when he awakes, Cole is frozen to the ground.Out from the permafrost, thick fingers of blue ice hold him prone. 

There, looming over him, he sees it. 

Tall and shining in the pale light. He looks humanoid, but that wouldn’t explain the icicles clinging to his body in sheets. It wouldn’t explain eyes glow like stars and skin as pure as snow. 

Cole is terrified, but he meets the eyes of this blizzard cryptid. “Where are they?”

The cold digs into his skin, but he doesn’t look away.The sun rises behind this creature of winter, it’s shadow presses over him. Wind kicks up his hair that isn’t frozen stiff. 

The figure leans back, then gestures outward with an arm coated in frost. Buried in the snow, Cole can see red and blue fabric peeking out. 

“Guys!” He struggles. The ice grows colder. He looks up with pleading eyes to the figure. “Please, we’ll leave you alone. Just don’t hurt them.”

It’s eyes are hard to see, not just from the light, but the veil of tiny fractals and frost that hide its face. The lone ninja searches them for any sign of sympathy.

Then, the ice flakes into the air. Cole rushes past. He pulls up Kai and Jay. Their faces are blue, bodies shivering and curled inward. He gathers them in his arms, then turns. The cryptid still watches.

“Thank you.” Cole says. “Thank you.” 

It’s not they’re back at the village that he realizes the Blizzard has stopped.

**::::**

Blizzard - the only name he’s ever known - follows the dark haired boy to the edge of his forest. He carries the other two so effortlessly, despite the exhaustion that must lie deep in his bones. 

He’s different, the only human to look upon him and not shriek in fear, nor scream and raise iron to strike.

So he follows him.The tempest that follows his steps never fades, so he must watch from a distance. But he still watches.

Cole walks ahead of the blue and red ones. Those two yell at one another, at Cole, at nothing. Cole narry says a thing. At night, when the fire dies and they lie in the throes of sleep, he dares step closer. 

But he is wise to never stay so long and retreats. The sun washes away any trace of him. Sometimes he lets Cole catch a glimpse of his eyes. 

Blizzard doesn’t know why he follows him, or why the others draw him in so. Days and nights pass without his notice. Soon, they are at another village. They have not seen him yet and the present snow masks him further. 

Blizzard watches Cole and sees how the human looks at other humans.

The blue one - Jay - and the woman - Nya - always stay together. He can’t watch them as often, the blue one is too smart. 

There are smaller humans. Some held by their elders in their arms or close to their chest. They smile and laugh. But Cole always watches them with an odd expression. 

Blizzard sees the humans holding hands, speak odd things and perform odd actions. It makes them smile. An odd, unfamiliar thing. 

One night, he finds Cole alone. Beneath the caves of the tall mountain they call home. Blizzard dares to step closer. Behind Cole. The frost creeps across the walls, icicles grow from stalactites. 

Cole doesn’t react. Blizzard reaches for his face. 

He jerks back. The man is scared for a moment. Just a moment. Ice melts away where his fingers touched. Warm, he is so _warm_

Cole stares, but he does not scream. “You really did follow us.” 

Blizzard shakes his head and points to him. 

“What do... oh.”

**::::**

It’s the first time Cole’s gotten a good look at him since the forest. He can’t help but admit it. He’s beautiful.

He’s tall. Taller than himself by at least half a foot, but as thin as willow vines. His eyes really do glow, framing his face in brilliant light. His hair is as pale as his skin, forehead wreathed in icicles and tiny crystalline snowflakes.

The robes he wears are not made of fabric. Instead, they’re of ice and sheets of fluffy snow. His sleeves trail across the ground, as does the bottom of the robes. More snowflakes drifts from the ends, creating a circle of winter wherever he steps.

It was an odd sort of thing. Cole could picture the cryptid being cast into the wind at a moment's notice. But he knew the effortless power he held, holding him down with barely any thought.

“Who are you?” Cole asks him. 

Blizzard looks to his hands. He shakes his head. 

“Can you speak?” 

He furrows his eyebrows. When he opens his mouth, Cole expects a wheeze or perhaps a deep, raspy voice. He doesn’t expect the screeching. It’s a horrible, broken and haunting sounds. 

He clasps his hands over his head. Blizzard slaps a hand across his own throat and mouth. He kneels in front of Cole, reaches for his hands but pulls away. 

When Cole raises his head, he doesn’t expect him to look so scared. “So, no then. Doubt you can write either.”

Blizzard shakes his head.

Cole worries his lip. “I’d like to call you something. Snowflake?”

He shakes his head.

“Frost? Blizzard?”

He nods. It feels good to hear him say his name. “Okay. Uh, good to meet you Blizzard.”

**::::**

Through unspoken contract, Cole tells no one of Blizzard and Blizzard remains under the mountain. Soon, the cave is claimed by his power. 

Sometimes, he hears distant voices. The blue one and another, Kai is his name, Cole tells him one day. 

“God, can’t he just shut up about my cooking? It’s not like he’s amazing either.” Cole rants, sitting against a pile of snow. “Jay, why can’t he just shut up for once! I love the guy, but seriously! It’s impossible to deal with him.” 

Blizzard kneels by his feet, wondering who these people are. They sound like a thunderstorm. Their arguments certainly are as loud as one. 

Some nights it is silent, others are loud. Cole comes down often on the loud nights.  
**::::**

When Blizzard is angry - at what, he doesn’t know - Cole sees the snow at his feet turn to ice. On happier days, the snow that falls from his feet blows in invisible winds. 

When he is curious, he tilts his head. And when something troubles him, Blizzard reaches for his throat.

“Could you ever talk... ever?” 

Cole watches as he slowly nods his head. “Okay, did something happen?” 

Blizzard glances to his hands. “Damn. You don’t know, huh.” 

There’s a very faint, very small curl to the cryptids lips. Cole grins. “Don’t worry about that. I’m happy playing charades with you for now.”

**::::**

Jay sees it first. 

Cole often leaves after their arguments. It’s practically a ritual. He breaks something, Kai gets in his face, Cole tries to be calm, then he leaves. Nya sometimes manages to stop him. Sometimes.

Jay didn’t really care too much at first. But then he sees the frost.

It’s late too, when Cole finally returns. He himself trains with his nunchucks, but Jay observes him. It’s the middle of spring. There’s a thin line of frost across the hem of his Gi.

Nya is the one who finds the snow. During the wee hours of the morning, she enjoys watching the sunrise.

But before even she is awake, she hears creaking floorboards. Looking down the stairs, she catches black cloth as Cole slips out the front. She follows him.

However, he doesn’t stick to the stairs like she expects. He climbs. Down the sheer cliffs and across precarious gaps. If she were any braver - or and more a fool - she’d follow him.

But beyond the curve of the cliffs, in the soft peach dawn, Nya can see snowflakes drifting in the breeze

Kai, however, finds the ice. 

It’s summer. And as they all begin to peel off sweaty training gear, he catches Cole quietly tucking away his gear before leaving out the front. Kai spares a few moments to throw off suspicion, then follows.

The rocks are shaky and the sun makes them burn on his blistered palms, but compared to a forge, Kai can withstand it.

What he does not expect is to slip on a patch of ice on the next rock. 

At the mouth of a cavern he didn’t even know existed, sits a wall of ice. His worry only grows when he sees footprints leading in across the flurry of snow.

**::::**

Some days, Cole brings things to his cave. Things he knows not the use, but Cole smiles as he explains. Sometimes he is clumsy, getting his hands caught as he works string or paper. Blizzard doesn’t mind, it is sweet.

One day, while reading one of the ‘books’ Cole brings to him, he hears something. He stands, looks to the entrance he now keeps sealed away from intruders. But nobody was there. 

He looked inside the cave. Cole was sitting on a sculpted seat topped with a stolen pillow. His hands working with something called ‘knitting needles’. 

Cole is the source of the sound.

It’s his voice, but somehow even softer. It rings like the sweetest bird calls through the shimmering lights of the cave. The words he has no name for, but Cole’s voice makes him see young sparrows and autumn leaves.

Blizzard finds himself walking forward once again. Cole doesn’t look up from his work and continues to say those wonderful words. Peace, a feeling so rare to him, washes over.

**::::**

Cole looks up from his knitted scarf. Blizzard is by his feet, head leaning against the side of the sculpted chair. His expression the purest smile he’s ever seen.

Cole wonders if Blizzard hears his singing, if that is why he is asleep. He’s surprised by himself, he’s never sung since his mother's death. He hopes Blizzard likes it. The thought makes him blush. 

He returns to his work and soon, it is finished. Nothing terribly long, but not terrible either. A pale pink and peach, fading from one to the other on both ends. Cole doesn’t wake Blizzard though. 

Then there’s the crack of ice. 

Cole jumps. Blizzard shoots up. The temperature drops. At the entrance, a massive crack marks the perfect surface. Blizzard summons more pillars of ice to block the way.

As fast as it solidifies, the people on the other side break faster. The temperature plummets as the wall finally shatters. 

“Cole!”

“Kai?” 

The others stand behind him. Nya looks to be armed with a handheld flamethrower. Jay glares at Blizzard and Kai, he holds the wrath of the sun in his eyes. 

“Let him go.” He growls. 

Out of Blizzards throat, a grating, screeching sound rises to match him. Nya points her weapon. Cole moves without hesitation. 

“Don’t!” He cries, gestures for them to step back. “He hasn’t hurt me!”

“Just get back from that thing, he’s not gonna get away.” Jay states. 

Kai doesn’t wait for an answer. He lunges for Cole’s arm and jerks forward.

The cave turns white.

Cole can’t see.

He can’t hear and he can barely feel his fingers. Thrown off his feet, Cole catches himself on a broken spire of ice. Raising a hand to block the gale, he sees it.

Throughout the weeks - the months - he stays with him, Blizzard was never violent towards him. He was skittish, curious and in his own way, kind. 

He’s almost forgotten this. 

An arctic storm, summoned in a matter of moments. Kai goes flying immediately. Jay only just manages to catch a stalagmite, Nya hangs from the other end of his nunchaku.

Blizzard stands at the centre of the force. Eyes burning supernova, the rest of his body dissolves into the snow and wind. Behind his team, Cole sees the entrance is blown clean open.

They’d lose their grip soon. 

There was no point in yelling. Cole braces his feet against the snow and growing slick. Wind and ice carves through shirt and skin. Sharp, jagged razors burst from Blizzards footing. His eyes were fixed on his friends. 

Cole reaches for his hand. Cold; searing, hitting cold hits his hand. 

He throws his bare arm over Blizzard's shoulder. Ice and frost leaps over him. He doesn’t know who is shaking harder. He pulls Blizzard in, holds him against his chest and ignores the numbness that spreads from his fingertips.

“I’m here.” Cole says. “I’m not leaving you alone again.” 

Blizzard tips his head up. The winds begin to die. Then the winter cryptid falls to his knees. The cold grows less bitter, but the frost still clings to them. 

Thin fingers reach up to the back of his shirt. Blizzard presses closer. Cole wonders if he can cry.


End file.
